Training a new projector operator in one rehearsal

A new volunteer doesn't need the whole program. To serve on Sunday, they need three skills: move to the next slide at the right moment, get out of trouble with a black screen, and not panic when something changes. One rehearsal is enough for that, if you teach in the right order. Shortcuts are for Mac: on Windows, press Ctrl instead of ⌘.

Before the rehearsal

• Check the account. Showing slides only takes viewing songs and plans. Changing the plan for the team needs Service plans: Edit, and fixing a typo needs Songs: Edit. The Leader role has both. If they'd rather not hold that much, a custom role is an option: Your team, invitations and roles.
• Use a real plan: the one for this Sunday, already prepared.
• Print the short list from the shortcuts cheat sheet and leave it by the keyboard.

Round 1: watch (10 minutes, before the band starts)

You drive, and they sit next to you. Show only this:

• PLAN on the left: the whole service,
• the slides in the middle,
• PROJECTOR on the right: what the room sees now, and under it what comes next,
• the bottom left corner: ON SCREEN means the wall is live.

Stop there. Don't open Settings, and don't mention themes.

Round 2: drive (during the rehearsal)

They take the keyboard and run the whole set list with the band, using three keys: → next, ← back, B black.

If that still feels like too much, open Follow the plan with the list icon next to the projector buttons. It gives three big buttons, Back, Next and Black, with what's on now and what's next above them. Esc closes it. It's a perfectly good way to serve on a first Sunday.

The one thing to coach is timing. Change the slide as the last words of the old one are being sung, so people can read ahead instead of waiting for the words. Let them hear what it's like when the slide comes late, and they'll get it.

Your leader can help by repeating a chorus without warning. That's the moment to teach the fourth key: R goes back to the chorus.

Round 3: break things on purpose (10 minutes, after the band)

Stay at the computer and give them small emergencies, one at a time:

1. "Someone asked for a song that isn't in the plan." ⌘K, type the title or number, Enter. The song goes in as next, after the last slide of the current item. ⇧Enter shows it right away.
2. "The preacher just quoted a verse." ⌘B, type the reference, Enter. It's on the wall. Esc closes the panel.
3. "The wall shows the wrong thing." B, breathe, find the right item in the plan, click it. Moving to another item takes the black screen off by itself.
4. "I pressed something and the text vanished." Look at the bottom left corner. TEXT HIDDEN: press C. LOGO: press L.
5. "Everything went off." Pressing Esc twice ends the presentation. Show them how to get it back with Go live.

Each of these takes a minute, and doing it once with you beats reading about it. Finish by opening Nothing on the projector together, so they know where it is.

What to leave out

Themes, timers, the stream, custom shortcuts and the sermon view can all wait. Each one is a fresh lesson for a day when they're no longer scared of the basics.

On their first Sunday

• Give them the Sunday morning checklist and let them do it, with you beside them.
• Sit close, and keep your hands off the keyboard unless the wall is wrong. Saying "press B" works better than reaching over.
• Take five minutes afterwards. Ask what felt hard, and fix that one thing next time.

For a second or third Sunday, sit a few rows back. When they stop looking at you before pressing a key, they're ready to serve alone.

A small note: a song that goes on the wall while the projector is on counts as sung, in Most played and in the CCLI report. So train on the songs you're really singing this Sunday, not on a long list of others.

What's next

• Running a service in Show
• Keyboard shortcuts, pedals and clickers